by R. D. Brady
“I think I did. And I’m going to need you and Pxedlin to go get the veerfinah still at the cottage.”
“We need another one?”
Lyla nodded. “If we’re going to defeat the Naku, we do.”
46
Lyla left getting the new members settled to Arthur and Thor. She did, however, track down Riley and tell him to go speak with Maisy. She would leave breaking the news to Riley to her.
She also tracked down Addie and Jamal. She told them what they had found, about the Unwelcome they had brought back with them, and about Ta’Chiko’s body. They promised to take care of the coffin, keeping it sealed and under guard until they could decide what to do with it.
Once done, Lyla headed up to the roof. She had slipped back into the veerfinah and removed the amulet from around Ta’Chiko’s neck with a thick piece of burlap. She’d then wrapped the object carefully in the heavy material. She carried it, along with the box, up the narrow stairwell.
At the top of the Gatsby, there was a small hatch that allowed roof access. Lyla had different guards up there keeping an eye on the land surrounding them. After checking in with them and learning that there had been no sign of activity in the area, she headed to a small corner of the roof, where she was hidden from view.
There was a small structure in the middle of the roof that was made of glass walls. Simon had said he thought it might have been a greenhouse at some point. The plants had long since died, but there were a few chairs inside along with a long table and some shelves. The little room smelled musty, but Lyla liked it for some reason. Perhaps because it was one of the only places she could go in the Gatsby where she could actually be by herself.
She took a seat in one of the chairs, placing the box and burlap on the table in front of her. Careful not to touch the amulet inside, she unwrapped it while wondering who Ta’Chiko had been. Her father had obviously trusted him, which counted for a great deal in her opinion. Her father did not trust easily.
And if Ta’Chiko had indeed been the one who had given her and the Cursed their abilities, she wasn’t sure if she should thank him or curse him. Without the abilities of the Cursed, thousands, if not more, of children would still be alive. But also, without the abilities of the Cursed, they never would be able to fight back against the Unwelcome.
With all that in her mind, she studied the amulet. It was beautiful. The chain was made of gold, as was the setting for the amulet. The stone was not a red or an orange but somewhere in between. Even in the dim light, a small glow seemed to emit from the middle of it.
The box was also beautiful but in a darker way. Dark black and shiny, it almost looked like granite, except it was extremely light. She doubted that the material it was made of could be found on Earth.
The sight of the scorch mark where the Unwelcome had shot at Maisy sent a shudder through her. How many times would she come so close to losing her children? How many times would it only be a close call? Didn’t the law of averages suggest that sooner or later there would be nothing close about the call at all? That it would be a direct hit?
In her heart, she knew that Miles was still alive. But she also knew that his chances of staying that way disappeared by the hour. They needed a way to take down the Unwelcome. They needed a way to get through the ship.
Which meant they needed to take some chances. Taking a deep breath, Lyla gripped each side of the box, placing her thumbs right underneath the lid. Slowly, she lifted the lid and stared inside. She was unsurprised to see gray ash filled the box. This was the substance that gave the Cursed their powers. She knew it without a doubt.
The underside of the lid had more symbols etched into it. Some of the dust covered it up, securing them. Without thinking, Lyla started to wipe it away as her other hand wrapped around the amulet. In a flash, everything around her disappeared.
She was standing in a black void. She went still, looking around her, not knowing what to do. It looked as if she was standing in the middle of nothing. It looked as if she was standing on air. She wasn’t sure if she took a step forward if her foot would touch solid ground or if she would plummet down, falling and falling and falling.
“It’s all right. You have nothing to fear here.”
Lyla slowly turned around. She stared at the figure who walked slowly toward her with the bearing of a prince. “Hello, Ta’Chiko.”
47
In addition to the movement, there was one large difference between the Ta’Chiko who walked toward Lyla now and the Ta’Chiko who lay quietly in the box: He was extremely tall. Both wore the same deep-red robe, both had the pearly white cast to their skin, although unlike the Naku, Ta’Chiko had no wrinkles. His skin was perfectly smooth. But this one was slim and seven feet tall.
Lyla stayed where she was as he approached. He stopped when he was only three feet away, a smile upon his face. “I am glad to see you know who I am. I thought perhaps my height would confuse you.”
“How are you so tall?”
“My race can change our height, depending on the resources available to us. When resources are scarce, we shrink to conserve energy. But this is our preferred height.”
Lyla nodded. That made more sense with the reports of the Anunnaki being tall, ethereal beings. “Did you visit with my daughter?”
Ta’Chiko’s smile dimmed. “I did. I never intended for someone as young as her to see what she did. I had always thought it would be an adult who came to speak with me.”
“Came to speak with you? Aren’t you dead?”
“In your understanding of the word, yes, I am. My body no longer holds my spirit. But death is not the end, not even for your species.”
While Lyla was intrigued by the observation, a philosophical discussion on the nature of death was not exactly what she needed from him. “Did you create the abilities of the Cursed?”
He nodded. “I wanted to ensure that your people had a way to defend themselves against the Naku.”
“Why? Who are you? How do you know the Naku?”
“The Naku lived on a planet neighboring ours. For billions of years, we lived side by side in peace. But the Naku suffered a devastating natural event. We offered them a great deal of aid. And when their planet could no longer sustain life, we offered ourselves and our planet as a lifeboat for them.”
“I take it that went badly.”
Ta’Chiko shook his head. “Soon they overwhelmed the resources of our planet. They are brilliant but arrogant. With their logical minds and their lack of emotion, they decided the best course of action was to destroy our species so that their own species could thrive. We did not realize what was happening until it was too late. Some of us managed to escape into ships and fled deeper into the star system. There were so few of us.
“We moved from planet to planet, taking a few resources here and there as we tried to rebuild. And then we finally found a planet that had more than enough resources. And the planet also had a primitive population that we could help reach higher levels of development. So we settled on the planet and began helping the primitive races. We showed them how to farm. We showed them how to create laws. We showed them how to be fair. We did have to manipulate their genetic structure slightly in order to allow them the mental capability to survive. We thought that was a gift that we were giving them.”
“Was it?”
“You standing before me today suggests that it was.”
Lyla was not surprised. “But the Naku followed you here. You were the group that the Naku were fighting in Maisy’s vision.”
Ta’Chiko nodded. “They had already been through planet after planet, collecting resources to bring back to our home planet. We had been settled on Earth for a thousand years by the time they arrived. The planet was at peace. There were occasional skirmishes between the humans, but nothing that threatened their existence. It was the growing pains of a new species.”
“Until the Naku arrived.”
“Once again, our people allowed them to take refuge on the planet.”
“They were not the same species that had destroyed our world. They were weak. Their bodies could barely sustain them. It seemed cruel to deny them a chance to live. And with their weakened physical state, they were no threat to us. But we failed to take one factor into consideration.”
“Humans.”
Ta’Chiko nodded. “When we interacted with the Naku so long ago, they did not have the ability to enter someone’s mind. We were not prepared for that. The humans were not prepared for that. We did not realize that they were changing the humans. That they were making them slaves, forcing them to guard the Naku with their very lives. By the time we realized what they were up to, they had created an army. For the first time, the planet of Earth experienced a true war.”
“We fought them with everything we had, down to almost our last person. It was a brutal fight. But we were victorious. The Naku packed up their ships, and this time they were the ones who fled.”
“But they took humans with them.”
“Yes.”
“Why, then, did you leave?”
“We realized that by interfering with the humans’ development, we had doomed them to be under the control of the Naku. The primitive minds of the humans we first found on Earth would have been of no use to the Naku. But the more developed minds, the ones that we had helped create, those they could use. We realized our interference had hurt the humans we thought we were helping. We decided to remove ourselves from Earth to allow humans to continue on as masters of their own destiny.”
“Yet you came back.”
He gave her a small smile. “We never actually went very far. A few of us have been living inside the moon all these years. We have monitored your development. We watched as you grew. We recoiled as you went to war. But we did not interfere.”
“But something changed that. What?”
“We received word that the Naku would be returning to Earth, that this time they would have a legion of soldiers to surround them and keep them safe. We knew the humans would never be able to defeat them on their own. We debated for years about what to do. My people decided to continue not interfering.”
“Then how did you come to be here?”
Ta’Chiko gave her a small smile. “I believe it was fate. I had taken one of the ships to do a reconnaissance mission. We did them periodically, just to see in closer detail what was happening on Earth. My ship malfunctioned, and I crashed. And two kind humans, a man and a woman, found me, brought me to their home, and nursed me back to health.”
“My parents.”
Ta’Chiko nodded. “They welcomed me into their home. I lived with them for a year. I did not tell them that the injuries I had sustained in the crash had never fully healed. I did not want to worry them. They provided me with such kindness, such acceptance. Even amongst my own people, I had never experienced anything like it. And then I learned that your mother was pregnant. I knew that when the Naku arrived, your parents and any of their offspring would be in danger. So I chose to interfere again. I made sure that your parents would be able to protect themselves.”
Lyla jolted at his words. “Wait, you mean my parents had abilities?”
He nodded. “Had they lived to see the arrival of the Naku, they would’ve been the first ones to have their abilities manifest. And because your mother had abilities, any of her offspring would also have them.”
Lyla was stunned. She had always thought of her abilities in terms of her and Muriel. She thought something had been done specifically to them. But it turned out they had not been the ones who had been the focus. They had abilities because their mother did.
“You are surprised.”
“I … I never considered the possibility that my parents had them.” She paused, another possibility crowding into her mind. “Adults can gain abilities? I thought it was just children.”
“No, the direct contact is a more concentrated dosage. It will work on anyone who submerges as little as one hand within it.”
“Why do the abilities only appear when we are being attacked by the Unwelcome?”
“Humans are an incredible species. You have a great capacity for kindness and goodness, but your capacity for evil and violence is almost as great. To provide you with more ability to do harm, it would have been disastrous for your species as a whole. As a result, the abilities were created so they would only work when you came in contact with a Naku or an Unwelcome who means you harm.”
That would explain why it had been so difficult to manifest their abilities at times. Even when they had tried fighting Arthur, the abilities hadn’t manifested. But at those times, he’d never truly meant them any harm.
There was, however, one large problem with Ta’Chiko’s explanation. “But how is that possible? You were long dead when the ash filled the air and the children were born with abilities.”
“Yes. Before I died, I instructed your father to return to my ship and to release a canister hidden in the back. It sent a chemical into the atmosphere. The chemical reacted with the nitrogen and the oxygen in the atmosphere and grew until it covered the Earth. The process took years. And once the Earth was covered, it descended to the surface as ash.”
Lyla didn’t know what to say. Ta’Chiko had meant well, but she wasn’t sure if he had helped or hurt the humans in his quest help them.
“What is troubling you?”
“My son. He’s been taken captive on board the mothership. He has abilities, and they are studying him. I can’t help but think if he did not have his abilities that he would not be in harm’s way.”
Ta’Chiko inclined his head. “That is a possibility. But without abilities, the Naku would have destroyed your world already. They slowed their devastation of this planet, knowing that we had been here before. They moved cautiously instead of just gobbling up every resource as fast as they could touch it. Once the Naku have set their sights on a planet, the planet does not survive for long.”
Lyla didn’t doubt that what he was saying was true. They seemed completely unconcerned about the damage they were doing to the Earth and its people. “Is there anything you can do to help me get my son back? Anything you can tell me that might aid me in figuring out what to do? Or do you have any knowledge of their ship?”
“It is not their ship. That ship belonged to my people.” He stepped toward Lyla and placed three fingers on her forehead.
Lyla closed her eyes with a gasp.
Lyla’s eyes flew open with a jolt that nearly sent her flying backward. She grabbed on to the edge of the table to steady herself. She stared at the amulet in front of her, everything Ta’Chiko had said running through her mind again. But it was the knowledge he had given her at the end that made her surge to her feet.
Wrapping the amulet again, she stuffed it into her pocket before she grabbed the box and hurried from the little glass room. She ran across the roof, ignoring the Phoenixes’ worried glances. She flung open the hatch and vaulted down the ladder, taking the rungs two at a time. She made her way down the stairs to the first floor just as quickly.
Lyla nearly bowled over Edna, who was just coming from the kitchen as Lyla rounded the banister.
“Whoa, whoa. Where’s the fire?” Edna asked.
“Sorry, Edna,” Lyla called over her shoulder as she ran past.
Lyla slid through the crowd of people preparing dinner for the evening. But even as she ran, she noted more than a few blue skin tones mixed amongst the human skin tones. Slowly the group was coming together.
She burst out the back door and across the yard. Thor and Arthur, along with Riley, Petra, and Montel, were heading toward the veerfinah. “Arthur! Thor! Hold up!”
The group of them turned around and waited till Lyla joined them. She smiled at each of them, causing Arthur to frown. “Lyla, are you all right?”
Lyla smiled. “I’m better than all right. I know how we’re going to defeat the Naku.”
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48
Riley stared at his aunt, surprised by the giant smile on her face. Since Miles had been taken, he hadn’t seen anything like it on her face. But before he could say anything, Lyla nodded back to the Gatsby. “I need all the heads of our security to meet me in the dining room in ten minutes. I want to discuss the next steps.”
“Everyone can be there but Lewis. He went out hunting with Pierce and Imogen,” Riley said.
She nodded. “All right. Get everyone else, though. Thor, as soon as you and Pxedlin get back from getting the other veerfinah—”
Thor cut her off. “Lyla, we already brought it back.”
Lyla stared at him. “What? But that should’ve taken hours.”
“It took two hours,” Arthur said slowly.
“I was gone for two hours,” Lyla said, not looking at any of them.
“What do you mean you were gone for two hours?” Riley asked.
Lyla held up the box. “I spoke with Ta’Chiko. He explained to me how he came to planet Earth, how they knew of the Naku, and how we can defeat them.”
Riley continued staring at his aunt. He’d seen the coffin where the alien’s body had been. He’d helped Jamal carry it into one of the unused stalls in the stable. “Lyla, he’s dead.”
“Well, apparently with his species, there’s dead, and then there’s not-quite dead.”
For the first time, Riley was actually worried that his aunt had lost it. Maybe the stress of Miles had finally pushed her over the edge. Or the stress of leading them all of these years.
Lyla glared at all of them. “You can all stop looking at me like I’ve gone crazy. I realize what I’m saying doesn’t make any sense at this point, but I will explain it all. Now go grab everybody we need, and I’ll meet you in the dining room.” With that, she turned on her heel and headed back toward the Gatsby.
Petra leaned in toward Riley. “Um, do you think she’s okay?”